


Lachesism

by carloabay



Category: Skulduggery Pleasant - Derek Landy
Genre: Bathtubs, Enemies to Lovers, F/F, Minor Injuries, No Smut, Post-Coital Cuddling, Pre-Relationship, Skulduggery Pleasant Fic Exchange 2020, Stakeout, Swordfighting, not really - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-24
Updated: 2020-12-24
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:33:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,594
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27405838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carloabay/pseuds/carloabay
Summary: Lachesism: the desire to be struck by disaster—to survive a plane crash, to lose everything in a fire, to plunge over a waterfall— that’s Tanith’s kind of lust. Maybe even love.
Relationships: Aurora Jane/Tanith Low
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4
Collections: Skulduggery Pleasant Fic Exchange 2020





	Lachesism

**Author's Note:**

  * For [swordfaery](https://archiveofourown.org/users/swordfaery/gifts).



> I kinda skimped on the smut oops sorry lol. Anyway hope you like it!

There was nothing worse, in Tanith's opinion, than a specific type of opposition on the job.

Specific, because while she would always have a whale of a time kicking the collective arse of a large group of mercs, or maybe some sort of fantastical, magical beast, she'd never liked running into the same person again.

Mostly it was a history thing: sleeping with the wrong person and all of a sudden they're the bodyguard on the next mission and blah, blah, blah. This time, though, it was different.

Because this time, she'd been beaten before by an encounter with Aurora Jane.

And Tanith _hated_ losing.

Aurora's blade flashed around in an arc, gold and gleaming, blinding in the dusty sunlight. Tanith stepped back, tripped over the shattered door lying on the ground, and fell to the floor in a flurry of leather and discontented noises.

She scrambled madly backwards, and Aurora advanced on her silently, fast, unyielding. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Tanith wished that Aurora Jane was one for quips and jokes. That would make this at least a little more bearable. 

Tanith rolled to the side, her ankle hitting the ruined doorframe, and then Aurora raised her hand and the wrecked door flew from the floor and straight into Tanith's face. The wood cracked on impact and Tanith crumpled, faint frustration pushing through the dull haze of concussion.

If she couldn’t beat Aurora this time, she’d never rest. 

Her sword was somewhere behind her, and she shoved the door away and scrabbled in the dust for a second. There came Aurora’s blade, straight for Tanith’s gut, and then Tanith’s fingers closed around the hilt of her sword and she slid it up, the guard of Aurora’s dagger slamming into Tanith’s blade and holding there. The impact rocked up Tanith’s arm, and she held still, Aurora bearing down with her full weight. She was strong, but she was tiny. 

The point of the dagger winked like a star in the evening light.

Tanith trembled beneath her for a second, out of momentum, out of fuel, in a daze, and then she slipped the blades to the side, and Aurora’s dagger sank into the floor beside Tanith’s hip. Tanith rolled away, up on one knee, and slammed the hilt of her sword into Aurora’s head with a grunt and an explosive breath. Aurora wobbled, slumped, and collapsed, unconscious, fingers still wrapped around her dagger.

Tanith stood unsteadily, huffing a strand of hair away from her face. She put out a foot and tentatively pushed Aurora over, onto her back. Eyes closed and rolled back into her head, muscles slack, lips slightly parted. A pale picture of faint beauty. Tanith leant down and felt for the pulse on Aurora’s slender wrist: steady, slow. Asleep, well and truly. Tanith dusted off her trousers, sheathed her sword, and made for the room at the end of the hall.

Not an easy kill, but a well-earned one.

∆

When that old life was over, when Tanith had burnt her resume (figure of speech) and wiped her record clean and broken up with Frightening Jones, she met Aurora Jane once more, in Belarus, on holiday, of all things.

Technically, it was a stake-out, but technicalities had never really mattered to Tanith; she had insisted on calling it a holiday from the start. Aurora was most definitely not in the same boat.

“I think we should move away from the past, Aurora,” Tanith said conversationally, resting an elbow on the mouldy table. The Irish Sanctuary had a shortage of money right now, and although the Americans had been able to spare Aurora, they hadn’t thought as far ahead as accommodation, apparently. Tanith didn't mind. She owed Bliss a lot of favours, and if this counted as two, so be it.

“Do you always talk this much?” Aurora muttered, squinting through the binoculars, one bare arm draped over the window sill. Tanith frowned.

“Spiky?”

“Like a hedgehog,” Aurora said dryly, and Tanith grinned this time.

“Oh, good.”

∆

Their guy appeared two days into the stake-out. Tanith spotted him leaving the apartment building across from theirs, and almost cried in relief. Sitting still had never been a skill for her, though Aurora seemed to positively enjoy it.

“It’s him,” she said, managing to keep her composure. Her fingers itched towards her sword. “Are we a go?” There was a click of a well-oiled weapon, and Tanith turned to see Aurora tuck a sleek gun into a holster with a nod.

“Hell yeah,” she said, and they took the stairs eight at a time, side by side. Tanith didn’t have the heart to take the walls and leave Aurora behind.

∆

Marcus Pilkson was a mortal. He was strong and fast and had a knife, none of which Tanith had been alerted to, so she was almost taken aback when Pilkson pulled a blade on her and tried to run it through her heart. She moved, it slit open her arm, and Aurora dived and knocked the idiot to the ground with surprising strength for such a tiny woman.

“My saviour,” Tanith panted, closing her fingers over the slash in her arm. Aurora rolled her eyes and wrangled Pilkson’s arms behind his back.

“Maybe don’t get slashed next time,” she said, and that attitude, that accent from that mouth, that flimsy and reluctant smile, could have had Tanith in tears if she was any kind of a lesser being.

She wasn’t. Barely.

∆

The wound hadn’t stopped gushing by the time they got back to their rooms, so they trussed Pilkson up and then cuffed him to the mouldy table, and then Aurora pushed Tanith into the tiny bathroom, sat her on the edge of the sink, and manoeuvred her roughly to bleed over the sink instead of the floor and her shoes.

Tanith, dizzy from blood loss and swaying on the edge of the basin, endured Aurora’s exasperation with fairly good grace.

“It’s like you _want_ to get hurt,” Aurora griped, one hand on Tanith’s arm, the other searching through the medical cabinet. Tanith flexed her arm, slight, experimental, and watched Aurora’s throat work subtly. Tanith smiled.

“Only by you,” she replied groggily. Aurora ignored her, busying herself with setting out bandages and antiseptic. Tanith’s whirling thoughts were all something along that line; if she was to be destroyed, it should only be Aurora. It was only right.

“Clench up,” Aurora said, barely a warning, and then the harsh sting of antiseptic swiped across Tanith’s wound. She bit her lip and her tongue hard to keep from yowling in shock: not that kind of weakness. Not here. Aurora was watching Tanith’s face rather than the wound, and Tanith let her lip slide out from between her teeth once she’d gotten used to the pain.

“Ouch,” she complained, and Aurora focused back on the wound.

“Don’t whine.”

“My butt is numb.”

“Shut the fuck up,” Aurora groaned, finally meeting Tanith’s eye. “I’m serious. Do you ever stop talking?”

“Make me do something else and I might,” teased Tanith, rocking forwards ever so slightly. The look in Aurora’s gaze could set her on fire. Tanith would like that kind of heat, the wasting away: Aurora turning her to ash.

“Alright,” Aurora said. Tanith paused, but Aurora didn’t give her time to reconsider; she rose up on her toes, gripped the back of Tanith’s neck with a bloody hand and kissed her. _Kissed_ her. Pressing against her, warm and small, slipping her tongue out to graze Tanith’s bottom lip. All hot and sweet and a little furious, and then Aurora pulled right away and reached for the bandage. 

Tanith opened her eyes without realising she’d closed them, and tried to breathe like a normal person. Aurora calmly unraveled a bandage, unbothered.

“Fuck,” Tanith gasped. It had been too quick, too soft. Not nearly enough to reduce her to something less. Not enough to kill her, just enough to send the pain of arousal and something sweeter rocketing down her spine.

“Now shut up,” Aurora said, and slapped on the bandage.

∆

They’d been sharing a bed since the stake-out started. Not at the same time, of course. Tanith had climbed into it every ten hours, the scent of sweet Aurora filling her nose, and she’d fallen asleep to that smell. 

This time, one side dipped right down, Aurora’s curled-up weight the one companion to Tanith’s still-racing heart. Because she hadn’t kissed her again. No, Aurora had finished the bandage, poured herself a glass of rusty water, warm from the tap, and gotten right into bed without a word.

She hadn’t said a thing about guard duties, so Tanith had double checked the knots on Pilkson’s ropes, given him a good shot of knock-out juice, and then slipped into bed beside Aurora. No complaints or protests. Just the sound of Aurora’s breathing, quicker now that Tanith was in the same small space as her. 

It was a hot night. Hot enough to sleep without covers, in sports bra and shorts, and Tanith squished her face into the pillow and tried to sleep, tried to ignore Aurora, who was stretched leisurely out beside her.

“Sweating?” Aurora mumbled, after at least an hour, and for a moment, Tanith thought she was sleep-talking. Then Aurora turned half-over, eyes dark in the hollow of night, flickering over Tanith’s body.

“Yeah,” Tanith managed. Then, “Aurora-“

“Shower’s cold,” Aurora offered. Tanith stared at her, trying to strain through the dark.

“What?” she blurted, quite sure she’d heard wrong. Aurora rolled over, fully this time, head pillowed in the crook of her arm. Hair crashing and falling over her neck and her chin, like shadows cloaking her head. Tanith wouldn't have minded drowning in that. 

Aurora reached out a hand, so pale in the dark that she almost glowed, and then strong fingers slipped over Tanith’s hip, Aurora’s thumb padded into Tanith’s muscle. The kind of touch that made Tanith want to pant hard, or maybe kiss someone, or maybe beg for more. The kind of touch that would break her down to nothing.

“I said,” Aurora replied, “the shower’s cold.”

“Are you offering?” Tanith breathed. Aurora shrugged, her fingers dancing up over Tanith’s ribs. Like the touch of stars, of blades, of branding irons.

“Yeah.” A fingernail dug into the skin beneath Tanith’s bra, slicing over her skin, and she bit back some sort of gasp. Aurora watched her intently from across the bed, working her hand down Tanith’s abs, digging into the clefts and rises of her muscles.

“Didn’t you say something about a shower?” Tanith choked out, when Aurora’s fingers smoothed over the skin below her navel. Instantly, the hand left her body and Aurora drew back with a whisper of cloth and folding limbs, and then she slipped out of the bed and walked towards the door. Tanith watched for a moment, gathering scattered thoughts and missing heartbeats: Aurora's walk was a silent, precise movement. Straightforward and measured, like she was stalking down a target.

Eventually, Tanith followed, and Aurora slipped into the bathroom and flicked on the light, casting a white glare across the floor from the doorway. Tanith approached, every heartbeat three times quicker than normal. Too-warm air, feet sticking to the carpet, thinking of Aurora's fingers digging into her skin, of her lips and her reluctant smile.

In the harsh light of the bathroom, Aurora's eyes were blue, torturously so: blue like poisoned flowers and lightning and a hundred other dangerous things.

Maybe she could afford to lose, to break into pieces, to give in to disaster just this once.

Aurora kicked the door shut, slipped a finger beneath the waistband of Tanith's shorts and used it to yank her roughly closer, until Tanith's hands were on Aurora's waist and Aurora's lips were searing hot against Tanith's neck and the air was full of harsh breaths and Tanith's irregular moans.

They ended up in the bathtub, once they were finished, cold water groaning from the showerhead above, beating down hard onto the two of them. Aurora was curled around Tanith, hair plastered to her head, skin to skin, lips brushing Tanith's collarbone every now and then.

Tanith crooked a knee up, twisted it around Aurora's hip, and bent her head to kiss Aurora's cheekbone, messy and awkward and slippery with water. Aurora sighed into Tanith's shoulder.

"Sweating?" Tanith teased, and Aurora laughed dizzily, her face moving against Tanith's skin.

She'd never heard that laugh before. It seemed like the right time: the right moment for a sound that could break Tanith's bones. That laugh, razor-sharp, could grind her to dust, and she'd want it.

"Why, you want to go again?" Aurora said, digging her fingers into Tanith's ribs. Tanith jerked and snatched Aurora's hand away, ignoring the grin on her face.

"You don't want to lose your fingers, do you, Jane?"

"Are you ticklish?" Aurora asked, a smug smile growing fast.

"No," Tanith replied, without conviction. Aurora's nose twitched.

"Sure?"

"N-" Aurora slid out from Tanith's side, pushed her knee into Tanith's hip and reached for her ribs, wicked fingers and wild eyes. Tanith yelped and wriggled and laughed, but Aurora didn't let up, and soon she was slumped over Tanith, both of them giggling weakly, Tanith emitting little squeaks with every brush of Aurora's fingers. "Stop," Tanith gasped, tears filling her eyes, and Aurora laughed, again. 

The shower was still on, but Aurora hanging over her was shielding Tanith from the spray, poisonous blue eyes digging into her soul. One hand resting on the lip of the bath, holding her up. Tanith's leg was still hooked around Aurora's.

Aurora's hand left Tanith's ribs, trailing over her stomach, smoothing over her sternum. Those destroying hands. Tanith could fall apart beneath them.

Aurora wiped the shower droplets off Tanith's wet jaw, brushing her fingers over the bruises she'd left on Tanith's neck.

"Are you going to kiss me, or what?" Tanith whispered, unblinking, trapped below a poisonous blue. Aurora sighed and leant down, slowly, heavily, and obliged. Gentle and warm, and Tanith dug her fingers into Aurora's soaking hair and kissed her back.

∆

Tanith handed Pilkson on the next day, to Aurora's handler from the American Sanctuary. Aurora went as well, and Tanith stuffed her hands into her pockets and watched from the pavement as the handler loaded Pilkson into the backseat, and Aurora opened the passenger side door.

She paused, one foot inside the car. And then she pulled out and shut the door, and Tanith's heart sped up and up until it was little more than a vibration in her chest. Her heart could explode, and she'd thank Aurora.

Aurora took her time getting to Tanith. She scuffed the ground with her boots, checked over her shoulder for her handler, readjusted the strap of her bag.

Finally, she arrived, flicking a strand of hair back over her shoulder. Tanith bit the inside of her cheek.

"I'll be in Zurich," Aurora said, carefully reaching out a hand, to brush Tanith's fingers with her own. Tanith twitched towards her, and Aurora drew back with a warning glance in the general direction of her handler. "At the Rietberg. September eighteenth." Ten days from now. It was far too long to wait.

"So will I," Tanith replied. Aurora smiled, reluctant again, relieved.

"Don't be late," she said, and she turned away with one last electric look over her shoulder. 

"I won't," Tanith murmured. She didn't move from the pavement for a long, long time, Aurora's touch still lingering on her fingers.

**Author's Note:**

> ❤️


End file.
